Warmest US Cities in Winter
During December, January and February, large cities with the warmest climates in the United States are in Florida. Just slightly cooler are urban areas along California's Pacific coast and in southern Arizona and Texas.
The season's hottest temperatures are at Florida's southernmost city, Miami.
Nearly every winter day in Miami reaches at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 °C). The city's temperature climbs into the 80s on 40 percent of the days in December, January and February.
These rankings of hottest cities use long-term temperature averages, based on weather data collected from 1981 to 2010 for the NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
The major cities included in the weather rankings below represent the 51 metropolitan areas in the United States with the most people, all those with over one million residents in 2010, according to the US Census Bureau.
Fourteen of America's large cities average daily temperatures above 50 °F (10 °C) throughout winter.
|City||Daily Winter Mean|
|Los Angeles, California||58||15|
|San Diego, California||57||14|
|New Orleans, Louisiana||55||13|
|San Antonio, Texas||53||12|
|San Francisco, California||52||11|
|San Jose, California||51||11|
Highest Winter Temperatures
Seldom do winter temperatures approach 100 °F (37.8 °C) in the US. San Antonio has made it to 100 °F and Austin has reached 99 °F in February.
Normally though, city climates are much cooler than this, even for those two record-setting cities. No major American city has an average daily high temperature above 80 °F (27 °C) throughout the winter months.
|City||Average Daily Maximum|
|Los Angeles, California||68||20|
|San Diego, California||65||18|
|San Antonio, Texas||65||18|
|New Orleans, Louisiana||64||18|
Warmest Low Temperatures
While all major US cities have recorded temperatures below 32 °F (0 °C), many remain above freezing for most the winter. Among the largest American cities, fourteen in winter normally stay above 40 °F (4.4 °C).
|City||Average Daily Minimum|
|San Diego, California||49||10|
|Los Angeles, California||48||9|
|New Orleans, Louisiana||47||8|
|San Francisco, California||46||8|
|San Jose, California||43||6|
|San Antonio, Texas||42||6|
National Climatic Data Center. NOAA's 1981-2010 Climate Normals.